WE WILL NEVER SURRENDER
 

Source: AVUI newspaper

Date: July 3, 2009

Reporter: David Castillo

Translated by: Alex Marti
 
Last summer, at the Festival de la Porta Ferrada, in Sant Feliu de Guixols, Roger Hodgson said he was missing playing in Barcelona, where success was high while he was with Supertramp in three memorable tours in 1977, 1979 and 1983. The city was living times of uncertainty and the band succeeded with its endless list of hits that were being played in everyone's homes, such as Crime of the Century, Crisis? What crisis?, Even In The Quietest Moments, Breakfast in America, the live in Paris album, and Famous last words. The differences between Hodgson and Rick Davies, the other songwriter, were so deep that they finally caused the divorce. When Supertramp returned to Barcelona in 1985 without Hodgson, the disaster had already been consummated. Nothing would resemble the past.

As if they had heard the words of Hodgson, the dynamic company “The Project” contracted him for a summer concert at the Poble Espanyol in Barcelona. The presentation was identical, Formerly Supertramp, with Roger Hodgson and Canadian multi-instrumentalist Aaron MacDonald, who plays keyboards, piano, harmonica, sax, clarinet, sings and anything else needed. One man's band suits the multifaceted personality of the British composer, who also played lots of instruments. The beginning was like in Sant Feliu, with powerful hits such as Take the long way home and Give a little bit. The winning serve would give the first points in front of an unconditional audience, around 2300 tickets sold. They thanked the two musicians with their enthusiasm and their determination to the Supertramp nostalgic script.
 
As a gift to the audience of Barcelona, Hodgson played a mellow, unreleased tune to get back afterwards with Easy does it, Hide in your shell, Breakfast in America and The logical song, where the singer gave some of the most inspired of his work, a rite of passage song that reminds you of a wonderful life, rather than education trying to turn you into "sensible, logical, responsible, practical," and in the end becoming "intellectual and cynical." The song sounded poetical and new in Montjuïc: "There are times when all the world's asleep, the questions run too deep for such a simple man."
 
The gentle wind cooling the stands while the high ring voice and the melodramatic tones sounded from 9:30 pm until midnight, only broken by a fifteen-minute pause to rest. Sympathetic and grateful, the English composer continued unfolding the magic Supertramp moments, getting to the top by performing Two of us, Even in the Quietest moments, Dreamer and Fool's overture , where you can hear Winston Churchill's voice with his famous "We will never surrender" and London's Big Ben bell.
 
Strongly appealing to Supertramp's success, the concert ended with works of art such as School and  It's raining again. Hodgson sticks to his feelings and to his work. Who said that nostalgia isn't what once was?